Guardians: Origins
by AuroraRose1959
Summary: Pitch Black is plotting to fill all the world with fear. Can a group of teens who've barely met work together to stop him? A Rise of the Brave Tangled Frozen Dragons fic. Includes some Jackunzel and Kristanna moments, hints of Eugunzel. Rated T because I'm paranoid.
1. Chapter 1

"Ow! Hey!" Merida DunBroch laughed as her friend pelted her with a few snowballs. They'd been best friends since they were children, but no matter how many times Jack Frost had done this, snow and ice in summer had never stopped filling her with delight. She quickly scooped up some of the snow from the forest floor and hit him square in his slim chest.

Jack raised his eyebrows impishly. "You're gonna get it now!" He raised his staff and suddenly snowballs began appearing out of thin air at an alarming rate.

"No-ow!-fair! You can make as many of those as you want by the time I've-OUCH!-gotten enough for-okay, you're gonna pay for that one, you devil!"

The girl made a fantastic leap for Jack, red curls fllying, and tackled him to ground. Jack was about to flip her off of him when Merida suddenly placed a hand on his mouth. She'd heard someone coming.

Without speaking, they got to their feet and Jack flew them into a nearby tree, hoping its leaves would be thick enough to hide them. The last thing he needed was snow on the ground on a hot summer to day to be connected to him. Just as he was beginning to wonder if he should have taken them further away, Merida nudged him and he saw what she had heard a moment ago. Cantering past their tree, far below, was a black horse, riderless-but the strangest horse either had ever seen. Its coat was so shimmery, its movements so fluid, it didn't seem to be real.

Neither of them said anything for a minute after the creature had passed. Finally Jack breathed, "What was that?"

"It looked more wisp than horse. I've never seen the like." Merida's blue eyes flashed. "Want to find out?"

Grinning, Jack flew her back down and they both raced through the forest.

oooooooooo

They couldn't track the horse by hoofprints, for it hadn't left a single one. It did, however, change the quality of the air slightly wherever it had been, making it appear almost wavy as smoke might, and it smelled vaguely of something decaying. After only about a quater of an hour, the horse's trail led them to a small cottage, hidden in a tight crag. Uncertain what to do, the two friends stopped for a moment to catch their breath. The windows were boarded up, the door heavily padlocked; it would have looked abandoned were it not for the steady stream of smoke coming from the chimney.

A piercing shriek broke their thoughts, then SMASH! the boards over the upper floor window suddenly went flying outward. Three black horses flew swiftly out. From the back one streamed dozens of feet of silky golden-

"Is that hair? Merida asked incredulously.

"It's a girl!" Jack took off flying after the horses as desparate shouts of "Mother!" rang through the air.

Merida tore after them, but was unexpectedly shoved hard to the ground from behind. Next moment she was looking up at a woman's pale face surrounded by thick black hair. The cold metal tip of a knife was pressed to her throat as the woman hissed, "Stay out of this, girl." With a swish of her dark cloak she was gone.

Gasping for air, Merida quickly got to her feet and tore after her. Stay out of it indeed.


	2. Chapter 2

Merida was gaining on the cloaked figure-a mere five or six yard away now. Suddenly, the woman made a sharp turn to the left into a thick growth of trees. Merida was sure that she turned into the same place, but there was no one in sight. After a minute's more hard running without sight or sound of anyone, she slowed to a halt and began examining the ground and the surrounding trees and bushes, hoping for some way to track her. When she turned around, she found-"A wisp!"

Hardly daring to breathe, she adjusted her bow and quiver slung over her shoulder and stepped gingerly toward the small blue light hovering before her. As she got closer, it vanished, and another appeared a few feet from her. She felt a rush of excitement and wonder running through her. Whatever she and Jack were getting themselves tangled up in, wisps could only mean that their fate had something big in store for them.

oooooooooo

After following the wisps for about a mile, Merida started hearing shouts. She quickened her pace, making sure she still didn't outrun the trail of blue lights. As the trees thinned out at the edge of a road, the wisps disappeared entirely. An inky black horse ran past. That couldn't be good. Sure enough, as she ran into the road Merida saw five of the dark creatures surrounding a young man and woman. The man was holding something like a pickaxe, and the girl had a large branch in her hands; they looked exhausted. How long had they been fighting off these beings?

Merida quickly got her bow, pulled an arrow from her quiver, nocked it, and aimed . . . where was she supposed to shoot a horse that seemed more spirit than animal? Could it even die? Not knowing what else to do, she aimed at a horse's breast and released. The arrow was true to its mark, but passed right through and embedded itself in a tree. The horse seemed to explode in a cloud of black dust. Merida shot three more in rapid succession, and was aiming at the last one when it seemed to disintegrate of its own accord. The other girl was standing where it had been, branch poised for battle. She then lowered it and bounded over to Merida.

"Thanks, er-"

"Merida."

"Thanks, Merida. Those things came out of nowhere and they wear you out pretty quickly. Have you ever seen anything like those before? What are we gonna do?" She bounded back and forth between Merida and the tall guy with the pickaxe or whatever it was. "We've got to find out if there are more out there! Oh no, the town! We have to warn them! We have to-"

"Whoa, slow down there." The young man gripped her shoulders for a moment to stop the girl's constant movement. He took off his hat and ran a hand through his blond hair. "But, uh, back to your first question-" he turned to Merida. "Do you have any idea what those were?"

"I don't. I'd never seen one till today."

The girl nervously ran a hand over one of her orange braids. "This is really not good. Those were so scary! I mean, they didn't look scary, but for some reason just being around them made me feel . . . well, scared. Oh, I'm Anna. This is Christopher."

"It's Kristoff."

"Kristoff."

"And yeah, I felt it too. It felt like some kind of magic-dark magic."

Merida slung her bow back over her shoulder. "Okay, so we're dealing with black dust horses that can magically make you feel fear just by being around them." She wanted to find Jack, but he could fly a lot faster than she could run and could be anywhere by now. She thought of all the people living on the edge of the wood. "Let's go to town to warn everyone." She turned and ran down the road, Anna and Kristoff at her heels.


	3. Chapter 3

Anna Arendelle clambered up to the ledge of the old well at the town square and promptly fell in. Or would have fallen in, had Christopher-Kristoff-not caught her and set her back upright. She straightened up and tried to look collected, commanding. She pictured her big sister. What would Elsa do? She thought for a moment before clearing her throat. "Good people," she yelled across the square, "we have just come from the woods with an urgent warning. We have encountered forces of dark magic, and we believe that they may attack. Here." Looking around at all of the shopkeepers and women with shopping baskets and children with hoops and other toys, she saw confusion, disbelief, and even amusement, but not even the slightest bit of concern.

Unsure of what to do, she faltered. Merida burst out, "It's true! There are horses-black horses made of magic!"

"Yes, thank you, and these horses appear to create fear in people, magically, and, uh, feed off of it . . . somehow." Anna's voice trailed off. By now the crowd of people had grown, and everyone was talking all at once. She started again. "Look, we have to figure out some way to protect ourselves! These things are really powerful, and we don't know how many there are. There could be hundreds, or thousands, or-"

"And what do you suggest we do then, eh?" came a man's voice from the crowd.

"I suggest you listen to her, for one thing." Kristoff spoke up with surprising authority. Anna smiled at him gratefully. "These things are a serious threat."

"Best to leave black magic alone!"

"We shouldn't get involved!"

"How do we know these horses of yours are even real?"

The townspeople, for various reasons, were clearly not going to listen. Anna felt her face flushing with anger. Would it take a horde of dark horses attacking to get them to see that something needed to be done? But by then of course it would be too late to do anything. And what should be done? They didn't know anything about these horses. What if nothing could be done? What if-

"Anna!"

"Hans!" Anna fell off the well, only to be caught inches from the ground by her fiancé.

"Glad I caught you," he said charmingly. His brow creased with worry as he scanned her face. "Anna, what's going on?"

Her sister Elsa suddenly appeared at her side, fear etched across her pale, pointed face. "What's happened?"

"Oh, Elsa! You'll never believe it! I was in the woods with Kristoff-well, I wasn't with Kristoff. I was in the woods, and I got lost, and Kristoff found me and was showing me the way back. But I got lost because there were these horses on the road, and they're made of magic, and they attacked, and-

"Anna! Anna, calm down." Elsa glanced about nervously. "Now let's go back home and talk over everything there."

Hans had put a hand at her waist and was guiding her toward their street. Gently pushing him away, Anna declared, "No, we have to help! We have to do something!"

Suddenly a scrawny boy with hair as white as Elsa's and a long stick in his hands bounded past her to Merida. "Mer, I found it! I found his-I don't know, his lair, I guess. Come on!"

Merida was starting to follow him, when Hans stepped in front of her. "Hold on, now. Does this have anything to do with whatever attacked my fiancee?"

"Your fi-oh, her. Well, yes, but there's really no time to explain, we've got to go!"

"I'm coming with you!" Anna could feel Elsa's fear mounting; the air around her was growing almost imperceptibly colder. Still, she wasn't surprised to feel a cold hand reach for hers. Elsa would stay with her, no matter what.

"Wait, who are these people?" The white-haired boy looked at them with open curiosity.

Merida looked ready to burst. "We can make introductions on the way, Jack, now let's go!"

"Wait." Kristoff stepped forward. "You mentioned a lair. I take it you want to get in without getting caught?"

"That would be the general idea," the boy-Jack-said sarcastically. "Looks like it'll be a bit of a challenge, but I don't think we have much choice but to try."

"I may know a couple of guys who could help."

Anna was growing impatient to leave. "Well, then, let's go get them!" Starting off down the street, she was stopped by Kristoff's heavy gloved hand at her shoulder.

"It's that way."

"Right."


	4. Chapter 4

Just around the corner from the tavern known as the Snuggly Duckling, Kristoff Lange stopped and turned to look at his two new companions. This crazy ginger girl Merida could probably take care of herself if she weren't too sure she could take care of herself. And this Jack kid-Kristoff had been around magic from childhood and knew how to recognize it, and this kid definitely had it. He looked and acted no more than eighteen, but he had some of the same depth in his eyes as Kristoff's Grand Pabby-less wisdom and purpose perhaps, but it was the same look of having seen much of the world, far more than his seeming youth could have shown him. Yes, he clearly had some sort of magic, something to do with that staff he carried, but he didn't seem to want it to be known so Kristoff was not going to bring it up.

Still, he worried about how these two would handle themselves in here. The others-Anna and her sister and that fiancé of hers who didn't seem to like him for some reason-had been talked out of coming in with him without too much trouble. Well, except for Anna, who only agreed to stay put when her beloved Hans asked her to. But Merida and Jack had insisted on going with him.

"Okay, you two. When we get in there, don't talk, don't make eye contact with anyone, just don't do anything that will draw attention to yourself." When they looked at him skeptically, he said more urgently, "Listen, I know it looks like a friendly stop on the road, but it's supposed to look that way so they don't have soldiers barging in and inspecting all the time. This place is pretty rough. Most of the people here bandits. Or worse."

"And we're supposed to trust a couple of thugs from here, are we?" Merida still had her usual bravado, but now it was looking a bit forced.

Jack, on the other hand, seemed unconcerned as ever. Just how powerful was this kid? He observed calmly, "Hey, we need people who know breaking and entering." He eyed Kristoff quizzically. "I gotta ask though: just how is it that you're so familiar with a place like this?"

Kristoff met his gaze evenly. "When you travel on your own in these mountains as much as I do, you've got to stay on good terms with the locals."

Jack and Merida exchanged glances. With Kristoff's hulking build, he was sure to be quite capable of holding his own in a fight. But he preferred to avoid having to resort to that. Was he just smart, or was violence simply not in his nature? Either way, he gained a bit of respect from both them. They each silently resolved to listen to him and let him take the lead in this Snuggly Duckling.

Of course, as they had often told each other as kids, all rules were made to be broken.


End file.
